Crying of Lot 49

Thomas Pynchon, 1965 DID NOT FINISH

This novel has the inauspicious honor of being the second I've not been able to finish, the first being Catch-22. And it is for a similar reason.

While Catch-22 is not actually a novel, but instead a series of character studies and disconnected scenes, the overall tone of the novel is satirical and "knowing". It tries too hard to funny and cool. This novel has exactly the same tone.

The Crying of Lot 49 is, at least, a novel. But Pynchon tries so hard to be slick and cool that it comes off as a 12-year-old telling dirty jokes with a wink and a smirk. Smarmy. Not to mention most of it makes little sense. Is there a reason for several pages describing a play Oedipa went to see?

Furthermore, the names of characters and places, again, tries far too hard to be clever. Oedipa, Mucho Maas, Dr. Hilarious, Mr. Fallopian...sounds more like James Bond or Batman than classic literature.

I don't know what the point of the novel was meant to be and I have no interest in learning.

Books like this and Catch-22 are exactly why I started this project in the first place. What is a classic novel? What makes a novel a classic? Who makes that decision? If this is a classic novel, it certainly isn't on the same level as Persuasion or Jane Eyre or Vanity Fair or Bleak House. Maybe this was really cool in 1965 but in 2022...no. It comes off like it should be sitting in an old bar hitting on retired prostitutes and trying to sell cars of dubious provenance.

Also, I can't believe this is given to high school students in Literature courses. My older son read this in high school (for our Christian homeschool co-op!) Not only does the novel lack any redeeming qualities as far as story or style, but there is sex and infidelity and murder and torture and and and.... Whomever decided this was a classic high schoolers needed to learn about has some serious kinks.

Time to Read: unknown - though it is very short, about 160 pages

Rereadability: didn't even finish the first time

Classic: Yeah, why is this considered a classic??